This is Daria Volkova, and I created this article about the essential metrics for success in Web3. You must read it if you're a startup founder, marketer, or C-level manager in this fast-growing industry.
I know, and you know, that money is the main focus of traditional businesses. But in Web3, it's a little different. You need to focus on creating value consistent with the expectations and needs of the Web3 community first, and profit will follow.
The most important thing is understanding who needs your product and who will use it. So, to start Web3, projects should focus on creating a community that is interested in the project's Value Proposition.
The product's value will lead to profit. If not, it is not valuable to the audience and does not solve any real problem; maybe no one is ready to use it even for free.
So, forget about chasing after money like it's the last pizza slice at a party😉 Instead, ask yourself these questions:
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Are we bringing users together?
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Are users feeling heard in the project's roadmap?
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Do users get a sense of ownership?
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Are users incentivized to make this project succeed?
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Are users getting constant value beyond the initial monetary value exchange?
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Is the initiative's vision clearly communicated to the community?
If you answered "yes" to these questions, my congratulations 🎉 You're doing a great job staying within the Web3 philosophy. And if you keep it up, the community will support you even if you're not using the latest tech trend.
So, what metrics should you look at instead of just profits?
Here are a few:
✅ Community size
✅ Community activity
✅ Community sentiment
✅ Community retention/churn
And if you're wondering how to measure your success, check out Total Value Locked (TVL).
Total Value Locked 💸
This metric counts the total value of digital assets locked in a DeFi protocol or smart contract. The higher the TVL, the more reliable the DeFi platform or DApp is. In simple words, this is an indicator of the level of trust in a particular project.
How is TVL calculated?
The process generally involves adding up the digital assets currently locked in a specific DeFi protocol or smart contract. These assets could include cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, or other tokens used as collateral for loans or provide the platform with liquidity.
For example, if a DeFi platform is calculating its own total value locked and has $10 million worth of ETH, $5 million worth of USDT, and $2 million worth of other ERC-20 tokens locked in its smart contract, then its TVL would be $17 million.
👉🏻 Usually, investors rely on TVLs calculated by third-party DeFi analytics platforms like Token Terminal, Dune Analytics, DeFi Lama, CoinGecko and L2BEAT. These platforms use application programming interfaces (APIs) and web scraping to gather the data they need to calculate.
Here is an interface of Dune Analytics. It’s pretty simple and understandable, even for newbies in the blockchain. I use this tool to learn more about projects and their potential.
And on the L2BEAT platform, you can compare the TVL of different Ethereum scaling layer 2 projects.
Unique Addresses 🪪
You also have to pay attention to Unique Addresses. A blockchain address is a unique sequence of numbers and letters and functions like an email address. It refers to a specific destination on the network where cryptocurrency can be sent to and used only once. The idea is to give people unique addresses every time they are to receive crypto.
This shows us how many people are embracing the Web3 lifestyle. And let's be honest, the more the merrier! Plus, comparing unique addresses to the number of internet users gives us an idea of how much room there is to grow.
The chart shows the total distinct numbers of addresses on the Ethereum blockchain and the increase in the number of addresses daily. The highest growth of 355,726 new addresses was recorded on Thursday, January 4, 2018. The lowest increase of 41 new addresses was recorded on Thursday, August 6, 2015.
Daily or Monthly Active Users 👯
The number of Active Users who interact with an application can be tracked daily, weekly, and monthly. The number of Active Users who interact with an application daily is called Daily Active Users (DAU). Similarly, the number of Active Users each month is known as Monthly Active Users (MAU).
Here you can see the comparison of Aave’s Active Daily and Monthly Users on Token Terminal:
This picture shows information about Market Capitalization, Token Price, Trading Volume, Treasury, and Active Daily Users. Understanding the market and comparing your project with benchmarks is helpful.
Active Developers 👨🏻💻
Additionally, we've got such Metrics as Monthly Active Developers. This is like the headcount of computer whizzes working on a specific blockchain network. In this picture, you can find out the most popular blockchains for developers:
Unsurprisingly, Ethereum is the most common blockchain platform to build on. But, unexpectedly, Kusama and Polkadot are so popular now among developers and much more popular than Polygon or Solana!
Crypto Market Capitalization 💰
Now, let's get down to the nitty-gritty: the impact of Web3 on the real world. We're talking Crypto Market Capitalization, and this is like the total of coins and tokens in the Web3 world. And it's a pretty penny!
Here you can see the screenshot from Coin Market Cap, and it’s the most popular and convenient website to learn about Market Capitalization. If you build your project with tokenomics, it must be on Coin Market Cap.
Conclusion
So, does a Web3 project need to focus exclusively on profit and consider it on day one? My answer is no. In this article, I talked about the leading indicators by which you can evaluate the success of a project in Web3, in addition to profit.
Web3 is a venture, and the main task of such projects is to interest people and form the idea of a new reality. The bottom line is this: focus on creating value for the community first, and the money will come. And let's make some blockchain magic happen!
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